Today’s workplace trends are putting human resources departments under growing pressure, and many traditional HR practices aren’t up to the task. Digital tools, such as HRIS and intranet solutions, can help you meet the expectations of both employees and senior leadership.

With global unemployment rates continuing to fall and the gig economy on the rise, there’s an ongoing war for talent. A recent survey of over 800 HR professionals found their biggest challenges are searching for high-quality candidates, increasing employee engagement, and boosting retention. Not to mention the problem of keeping the growing number of remote workers feeling connected and supported.

Employees are more empowered than ever before, and they seek out organizations that provide a positive employee experience – from recruitment to exit. According to Gartner research, 51% of HR leaders say improving the employee experience is a top priority.

Gartner also reports 67% of business leaders believe their organizations must become significantly digitalized by 2020 to remain competitive, which puts the heat on HR to implement new tools. In fact, 88% of HR leaders say they need to invest in at least three new technologies over the next two years.

To enhance the employee experience – which is known to strengthen engagement, productivity, and retention – HR should introduce application software that borrows the best features of consumer apps. They should adopt intuitive digital tools that ease the pain points in HR while fostering culture and engagement in employees.

Here are just a few things a human resources intranet can do to help you recruit, nurture, and retain your company’s most important asset: people.

1. Strengthen culture

A healthy culture nurtures engagement in all kinds of employees, but especially in the largest generation in today’s workforce. Millennials now make up 35% of workers, and they place a high value on culture. A Deloitte study found 57% of this age group say it’s very important in choosing a position, just behind financial rewards at 51%. And according to Linked In, 70% of professionals would turn down a position at a leading company if they thought the culture was lacking.

An HR intranet brings your culture online. It connects employees wherever and whenever they work, gives them quick access to information and people, and even opens up dialogue with senior leaders.

You’ll read more about the onboarding process below, but HR application software cultivates culture from day one by connecting new hires with company social networks and helping them see where they fit. You can even include a social hub for company events, clubs, and social chatter. After all, the top factor that keeps people at an organization is a sense of belonging.

2. Drive self-help

How much time does your team spend dealing with administrative tasks and repeatedly answering the same employee questions? How much time do employees spend tracking down HR policies on vacations, training, benefits, and more? Likely far too much.

An HR intranet allows you to centralize critical HR information in a single, easy-to-access digital destination. By helping people to help themselves, it reduces the administrative burden on your team while giving employees the efficient, seamless experience they’ve become accustomed to in their personal apps. And HR intranet software integrates with the apps you already use, including HRIS solutions.

3. Onboard better

Many organizations have developed – or overhauled – onboarding programs in response to the overheated labour market, but the majority are still falling short of employee expectations. A recent study by Gallup found only 12% of employees strongly agree that their company does a great job onboarding new hires.

When onboarding falters, productivity suffers and turnover increases. Losing new hires in the first couple of years is expensive, prompting a growing number of enterprises to invest in employee onboarding solutions. Everything you need to prepare people for success is in one place, from a welcome center and essential company information to FAQs and training resources. It’s a positive, memorable way to root the employee experience, and a cost-effective method to accelerate the productivity of new recruits.

4. Empower remote workers

By 2020, half of all workers in the U.S. will be remote. Flexibility is a leading consideration for job-seekers, including the 50% of millennials who say it’s “very important” when choosing where to work.

Not having to get into the office every day has economic, health, and lifestyle advantages for employees, and it can save money for organizations. But there’s a downside. Remote workers struggle with loneliness and a lack of community, which can lead to burnout, low engagement, and decreased productivity. More than half of remote workers in a recent survey said they missed out on important information and/or were excluded from meetings because they weren’t on site.

An HR intranet brings all employees together in a central digital destination where they can collaborate, socialize, and easily find the information – and people – they need to do their best work. By including a comprehensive company directory, you can enable remote workers to get acquainted with their colleagues, learn about changes in the org chart, and search for specific expertise. It also supports more informed HR planning and decision-making by providing a quick visualization of the company structure – including any gaps or redundancies.

5. Surface employee recognition

In the age of the empowered employee, recognition programs matter more than ever. But the old approaches don’t work, and the stakes are high. A recent Gallup poll found that employees who feel adequately recognized are half as likely as those who don’t to say they’re going to resign in the coming year. Yet only 30% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they’ve received recognition or praise for doing good work in the last week.

The new generation of workers has an even higher need for performance feedback. 60% of Generation Z employees say they want multiple check-ins from their supervisor during the week, and two-thirds of them say they’d leave their job if they didn’t receive feedback at least every few weeks. It can be brief, but it should be regular, prompt, and visible to the whole workforce.

An HR intranet is the ideal spot for shining a light on employee effort and success. A recognition center is an all-in-one solution for managing every part of your recognition program. You can integrate kudos in company-wide communications, give people an easy way to nominate their peers, showcase promotions, and integrate with existing tools.

Learn more about the benefits of an HR intranet

An HR intranet centralizes and streamlines daily HR functions while enabling new tools to improve the employee experience. By connecting people and resources in a single destination, it can help you solve your current, and future, HR challenges.